June 15, 2019

Content Editing vs. Copy Editing

Writing hundreds of thousands of words won’t make you a writer par excellence. Unorganized or inconsistent long-form content too might merely showcase you but a verbose and nothing else. What matters most in content writing is how precisely you are crafting the contents that literally keep your readers hooked to read and admire your incredible writing skills. Both content writers and editors are thus required to be trained on the multifarious aspects of content creation procedures. By giving them meticulous training, you can definitely expect exemplary outcomes from their sincere efforts. This post is focused on learning about content editing vs. copy editing.

As a content writer, one should understand numerous important prerequisites that describe content writing as the art of playing with words. Let them also keep in the loop about another key factor, like user-generated content always bringing authenticity to brands, especially when content are focused on marketing promotions. By adding many such elements and with the sincere incorporation of all the above-mentioned points, you are reassured for your content to create wonders.

On the other hand, content writers should also remain abreast of formatting and language-related techniques to create valuable content. They must be thoroughly trained and groomed for content writing, besides ensuring their awareness about the other two factors—content editing and copy editing. When they are trained to hone their research aptitude, they are expected to bring out exceptionally appealing and truly compelling content as highly skilled professionals.

What is Content Editing?

Smashing Magazine suggests ‘how to evaluate business content editing tips through their professional honing’. Content editing services can be understood through the many metaphors used, such as developmental editing or substantive editing, to craft content so that it turns into readable pieces of stuff effective enough to express ideas without any jargon. Editors involved in content editing should, therefore, focus on the following aspects religiously:

Meticulous content checking
Thorough checking of factual errors
Cross-checks to avoid contradictions, if there are any
Ensuring total avoidance of content inconsistencies
Checking discrepancies in the plots for factual contents
Total language error checking
Overall content honing

What is Copy Editing?

It is agreed by almost all marketing pundits that ‘quality content do bridge all the gaps in the marketing strategies’. What are the factors which can transform certain content into quality contents which can have a charismatic impact? Besides numerous other factors the notable ones like copy editing—also spelled copyediting—do remain an important prerequisite for quality assurance of contents written.

Through copyediting, a content copy is checked minutely for spelling and other formatting errors such as capitalization, the use of punctuation, verb tenses, and several other grammatical errors, without which a copy’s meaning might possibly change. Furthermore, copyediting plays a vital role in checking the continuity of a copy by keeping in consideration the issues of sentence structuring, and paragraph lengths to making the selection of appropriate words, and last but not least, doing a further evaluation if any missed words are there which could mar the copies.

Forbes has explained the 10 best ways to edit the copies, thus enlivening the texts to be sought after. If understood in a layman’s language, copyediting mainly involves minute language corrections of the texts as polished to turn them readable, appealing and compelling to all the potential loyal existing as well as new readers.

Valuing Content Quality Under the Content Editing vs. Copy Editing Prism

Quality contents always leave a lasting impression on the readers. Search Engine Land has done an extensive assessment of quality contents that they must meet Google Webmaster Quality Guidelines, including Search Quality Rating besides the keywords & phrases’ co-occurrence, topic completeness and adherence to the Panda algorithm et al.

Content editors minutely evaluate the content and also guide for certain changes, if required. Some portions of content might require rewriting during the content editing process. The overall aim is to keep an eye on the readers’ perspective to ensure that they are satisfied by contents that grab their attention to the fullest.

If talking in the context of business promotion content, especially those meant for eCommerce or digital marketing platforms, professional business writing skill remain a pivotal factor for business operations. Therefore, an ardent need for content editing and copy editing becomes mandatory. So, what should be your prime focus?

Involve a skilled content editor
Get your contents proofread for typos
Ensure that the nuts and bolts of writing get fixed
Keen assessment of the fact-checking process
Ensure best copyediting for language accuracy
Content editing to hone overall content quality

The Irrefutable Role of Copyeditors in Content Quality Assurance

Questions are often asked about the roles that copy editors play in content creation. And, to hone content to bring out the final output, what are the key prerequisites? Well-trained and professional copyeditors focus on the quality assurance part through their steps to professionally polish the contents to make them readable and meaningful.

They maintain total coherence in content. Their focus remains on crosschecking the quality of content as well as the quality of copies. Copyeditors do have a free hand to chop and change the copies as and when required. The key focus of the copyeditor will, therefore, be on following the primary aspects of bringing complete transformation in the copies through:-

Redrafting the copies articulately
Ensuring correct and consistent language tone
Ascertaining logical presentation with suitable headings & subheadings
Turning the copies effectively to grasp the target audience’s attention
Ensuring proper copy structuring, formatting, and minute spell checks
Assuring the technically and grammatically correct copies
Focusing on the correct punctuation uses

Proofreading Does Matter the Most

Smart marketing emphasizes a couple of notable reasons why proofreading paves the way for attention-seeking business communication. Like copyediting and content editing, proofreading too remains a crucial element in the content creation phase for quality assurance.

Proofreaders are involved at the end but they remain crucial after the copies are already written and edited until they are finally approved as the finished products. In a nutshell, it can be said that a proofreader keeps an eye on the final stage of correcting content for the following notable purposes:

Final checking of spelling, grammar and punctuation
A thorough look on the styling aspect of content already written
Focus on the typesetting elements, if there are any
Assuring correct caption placement for the photographs
Ensuring the removal of unnecessary words, headings or paragraph repetitions
Removing the corrupted characters, if there are any
Checking the contents and corresponding page numbers
Checking the inappropriate juxtaposition of texts or images

From content creation to content editing, copy editing, and proofreading stages, there remain the substantive content creation and editing phases to come up with the perfect output. All phases have their vital roles to play, and therefore so are they very crucial. Those of you dealing with contents must understand the above-mentioned factors, their differences and also the cognitive roles they always play to help create quality contents. You should have a thorough understanding of their causal relationships in the content creation process.

From scratch until the end, a content writer, a copywriter and last but not the least, a copyeditor alongside a proofreader work closely and keenly to craft great contents. Through such teaming up, they can definitely expect consistency and accuracy in the contents written. Therefore, SEO copywriting services have become popular among entrepreneurs and website owners.

It should always be remembered that 2nd or 3rd pair of eyes would have a high value in the editing of contents to maintain their effectiveness. Such collective efforts will guarantee quality as meticulous efforts by paying attention to details. They are always crucial in content creation.

Causal Relation Between Contents and Business Communication

In the context of business communications to various promotional content meant for digital platforms or even any traditional business operations, creating quality content always remains important. They are seeking to imply a comprehensive and systematic communication process. Quality contents are pivotal to maintaining quality assurance in communications, even if there is a choice between two rights.

Let expert content writers, content editors, and copyeditors collaborate on the great content creation effort so that the created content remains imprinted in a reader’s mind. Qualitatively written content therefore best suits machines as well as human readers. When popular search engines catch them instantly, and also people start searching for such content, your website rankings start to escalate naturally. And, the actual benefit of search engine optimization (SEO) with quality content is easily witnessed. This is how you can create wonders with quality content.

Isn’t ‘Content is the King’ in the current scenario?

Conclusion: Content Vs. Copy Editing

There is no dearth of freelance writers in the market today, but why should you look for only reputed agencies that can assure you to offer a variety of writing services. As a robust team of highly skilled and qualified professionals in the multiple niches, they would focus on each and every aspect from content creation to content editing and copy editing. Their efforts are always focused on compelling and sincere content-creation strategies.

Their primary motive remains on the creation of quality content which are written to appeal to all and sundry—the unaccountable reader base. We also offer paraphrase services in India.

Reputed content agencies create contents to assure that let your contents speak volumes and loudly too. They must literally enchant the readers to believe in what you are willing to convey. It would be possible by doing the balancing act—thus offering enough room to content creation, content editing, and copyediting as per the respective values they should be given.

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